New Article: Kaplan, Jewish-Arab Relations in Israeli Freemasonry

Kaplan, Danny. “Jewish-Arab Relations in Israeli Freemasonry: Between Civil Society and Nationalism.” Middle East Journal 68.3 (2014): 385-401.

 

URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/the_middle_east_journal/v068/68.3.kaplan.html

 

Abstract

This article applies ethnographic methods and historical analysis to explore Jewish-Arab relations within Israeli Freemasonry. The article tracks local Masonic history as the fraternity developed from individual lodges under colonial-like obediences in late Ottoman and Mandate-era Palestine into a national-level organization, under the Grand Lodge of the State of Israel. In light of an official position of political noninvolvement, Jewish and Arab-Palestinian members conveyed shared values of universal fraternity, but variable interpretations of citizenship and nationalism.